What next?
Well, I've finally got here! Due to being really busy at work I have found that I haven't done one "Thing" per week, more like I've done about 5 in a week to try to catch up! It would have been better to try to dedicate an hour or so a week to the program but that is easier said than done at the start of term in particular!
We are just about to do appraisals and CPD plans at work so this is quite timely, I've identified some training that I need for in college projects, hopefully the training will be sorted out after Christmas. I will be having a look at the Professioanl Knowledge and Skill Base before my appraisal to see if there are any other thingsto work on.
I think the 23 Things for CPD has been a really good program to work through, I have learnt about lots of new tools to use and has been a chance for reflection, I would definitely recommend other staff to do the course if it "runs" again!
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Thing 22
Volunteering
I haven't done any volunteering in libraries before, I was lucky enough to get a full time job as a Library Assistant in a public library before doing my Masters degree so didn't need to volunteer to gain experience of library work. I have done some volunteer work in the past when I was at university studying for my BA - I helped out at my old first school for approximately 3 years as part of a scheme called the Millennium Volunteers. This was a good experience, at the time I was wondering whether I should study to become a primary school teacher. I enjoyed the time I spent at the school, I helped one day a week with using computers. I helped the same teacher for the period of time I was there and she taught Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students over the three years which meant I worked with a variety of ages of children. Even though I enjoyed it, I decided that teaching wasn't for me! I think volunteering is a good way of finding out whether or not you enjoy something and hopefully it is of benefit, however I'm not sure I agree with volunteers taking over day to day running of libraries. Some in our local areas are open a few hours each day and run by volunteers. Admittedly, these libraries are small and do not have that many visitors but I think it demoralises staff and surely it is tricky to manage volunteers as they are not paid to be there? However, on the other side I imagine a lot of these smaller libraries may not open at all due to the costs involved if we did not have volunteers willing to keep them open for working for free.
I haven't done any volunteering in libraries before, I was lucky enough to get a full time job as a Library Assistant in a public library before doing my Masters degree so didn't need to volunteer to gain experience of library work. I have done some volunteer work in the past when I was at university studying for my BA - I helped out at my old first school for approximately 3 years as part of a scheme called the Millennium Volunteers. This was a good experience, at the time I was wondering whether I should study to become a primary school teacher. I enjoyed the time I spent at the school, I helped one day a week with using computers. I helped the same teacher for the period of time I was there and she taught Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students over the three years which meant I worked with a variety of ages of children. Even though I enjoyed it, I decided that teaching wasn't for me! I think volunteering is a good way of finding out whether or not you enjoy something and hopefully it is of benefit, however I'm not sure I agree with volunteers taking over day to day running of libraries. Some in our local areas are open a few hours each day and run by volunteers. Admittedly, these libraries are small and do not have that many visitors but I think it demoralises staff and surely it is tricky to manage volunteers as they are not paid to be there? However, on the other side I imagine a lot of these smaller libraries may not open at all due to the costs involved if we did not have volunteers willing to keep them open for working for free.
Thing 21
Promoting yourself at job applications and interviews
It has been a while since I applied for a job, I have been to an interview since getting my current job but I wasn't successful and on reflection I am glad that I didn't get the job as it was further to travel to than my current job and that is already over 20 miles in total that I have to travel per day. Activities and interests...reading books, newspapers, surfing the web, using social online networks, going to the cinema, swimming, walking, playing unusual board games e.g. Agricola and more usual board games e.g. Scrabble! Work related activities - I like editing our Library pages that we have on Heritage using basic HTML knowledge, also enjoy finding out books and online resources for students/staff who are looking for particular topics, this is the part of the job I enjoy, the actual enquiry side! Over the past couple of years I have had some experience of doing appraisals of staff, along with other members of the Senior Library team. I frequently have to do user education/inductions for students which involves having a knowledge of all our online resources and being confident to stand in front of classes and disseminate the information. This is something which I have recently become more confident at doing, though still find I get a little nervous. I do find preparation is the key to feeling more confident which is also the key to interviews. I like to know about the place that I am applying for, when I applied for the job I didn't get I made sure that I had notes with me about different experiences as a reminder for me to look at whilst in the interview - unsure if this looked good or not but made me feel better! Also I did some research on their website and found out which online resources and journals they subscribed to and general things like opening times.I always think that having a question to ask is useful too, perhaps asking what a typical day might involve if I got the job.
It has been a while since I applied for a job, I have been to an interview since getting my current job but I wasn't successful and on reflection I am glad that I didn't get the job as it was further to travel to than my current job and that is already over 20 miles in total that I have to travel per day. Activities and interests...reading books, newspapers, surfing the web, using social online networks, going to the cinema, swimming, walking, playing unusual board games e.g. Agricola and more usual board games e.g. Scrabble! Work related activities - I like editing our Library pages that we have on Heritage using basic HTML knowledge, also enjoy finding out books and online resources for students/staff who are looking for particular topics, this is the part of the job I enjoy, the actual enquiry side! Over the past couple of years I have had some experience of doing appraisals of staff, along with other members of the Senior Library team. I frequently have to do user education/inductions for students which involves having a knowledge of all our online resources and being confident to stand in front of classes and disseminate the information. This is something which I have recently become more confident at doing, though still find I get a little nervous. I do find preparation is the key to feeling more confident which is also the key to interviews. I like to know about the place that I am applying for, when I applied for the job I didn't get I made sure that I had notes with me about different experiences as a reminder for me to look at whilst in the interview - unsure if this looked good or not but made me feel better! Also I did some research on their website and found out which online resources and journals they subscribed to and general things like opening times.I always think that having a question to ask is useful too, perhaps asking what a typical day might involve if I got the job.
Thing 20
The Library Routes Project
This is similar to Thing 10 so not going to repeat all of it again here. However, I did try to add my details to the Wiki but I wasn't sure if I was doing it right as I couldn't find 'Insert name here' when I clicked on the edit button...unsure what I was doing wrong! I ended up copying a pasting an existing entry and then putting my details in instead but then didn't seem to show up when tried to look at page. However on recent changes it shows my username and that I've done something...?
This is similar to Thing 10 so not going to repeat all of it again here. However, I did try to add my details to the Wiki but I wasn't sure if I was doing it right as I couldn't find 'Insert name here' when I clicked on the edit button...unsure what I was doing wrong! I ended up copying a pasting an existing entry and then putting my details in instead but then didn't seem to show up when tried to look at page. However on recent changes it shows my username and that I've done something...?
Thing 19
Catch up week on integrating "things"
There have been lots of useful and new things that I have learnt so far. I used to have a Twitter account and am trying to use that a little more though I don't ever post anything on it, just read the posts from other people. I follow Phil Bradley and find his posts are good to read.
I do like Prezi, that was a new one for me, never heard of it before doing this course. I think it is an interesting idea and will be spending some time looking at it and having a go with the very basic one that I started. Unfortunately, as I have been so busy in September and October - the perils of being part time and not having a job share partner - I am only allowing a limited amount of time to each Thing. However, I will be exploring a lot of the links I have found and this is top of the list at the moment!
Thing 18
Screen Captures and Podcasting
A member of Library staff created some screen captures over the Summer to help our students and staff use our resources e.g. searching our catalogue and Britannica. I had a go at doing screen captures and it seems easy to use. The worst thing is when the page you are trying to open goes slow when you are recording!
I haven't ever done any podcastin, interesting to have a look at it. I think it was talked about at College for lecturers to use podcasting so students would be able to listen to lectures again and again for revision!
A member of Library staff created some screen captures over the Summer to help our students and staff use our resources e.g. searching our catalogue and Britannica. I had a go at doing screen captures and it seems easy to use. The worst thing is when the page you are trying to open goes slow when you are recording!
I haven't ever done any podcastin, interesting to have a look at it. I think it was talked about at College for lecturers to use podcasting so students would be able to listen to lectures again and again for revision!
Thing 17
Prezi and Slideshare
I have now spent about 20 mins on Prezi and think it's great, I haven't even looked at how to do it yet but just been engrossed with looking at the examples! This is a good library example I found by doing a Google search:
http://tur-www1.massey.ac.nz/~wwliblog/loud.php/lets-get-going-library
I am interested to see whether we can change any of our Powerpoint presentations into Prezi presentations however I wonder whether it may take a while to make it look as good as some of the examples that I have seen. I have had a go at making a prezi, it was very basic, but I inserted some images and had 3 frames, was good fun and seems quite easy to use. I am not sure whether the College would want to pay for a licence and so we could only use it using the free option so not sure how many people would use it. We could put some of our general Library information on it which wouldn't be a problem but couldn't put any information such as usernames and passwords to our online resources on it which is a shame. Possibly it would be good for Open Day though would want to spend some time creating it. The other problem with it being online and free is that there is no guarantee that it will be here for when we want it whereas a program like Powerpoint we can buy and have working on a computer without having to rely on the internet.
Slideshare - have only briefly looked at this, we have shared space at College so unsure whether we would use this. I imagine it is useful for conferences and courses as all the PowerPoints from the speakers can be uploaded to it.
I have now spent about 20 mins on Prezi and think it's great, I haven't even looked at how to do it yet but just been engrossed with looking at the examples! This is a good library example I found by doing a Google search:
http://tur-www1.massey.ac.nz/~wwliblog/loud.php/lets-get-going-library
I am interested to see whether we can change any of our Powerpoint presentations into Prezi presentations however I wonder whether it may take a while to make it look as good as some of the examples that I have seen. I have had a go at making a prezi, it was very basic, but I inserted some images and had 3 frames, was good fun and seems quite easy to use. I am not sure whether the College would want to pay for a licence and so we could only use it using the free option so not sure how many people would use it. We could put some of our general Library information on it which wouldn't be a problem but couldn't put any information such as usernames and passwords to our online resources on it which is a shame. Possibly it would be good for Open Day though would want to spend some time creating it. The other problem with it being online and free is that there is no guarantee that it will be here for when we want it whereas a program like Powerpoint we can buy and have working on a computer without having to rely on the internet.
Slideshare - have only briefly looked at this, we have shared space at College so unsure whether we would use this. I imagine it is useful for conferences and courses as all the PowerPoints from the speakers can be uploaded to it.
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